okay. quick history lesson, LND was started in the 90s, when andrew lloyd webber collaborated with author frederick forsyth to write the phantom of manhattan. this was the original plan. but it was bad and no one got on board and the very idea of a sequel was dumb. everything was scrapped (which is why you can hear the coney island waltz and beneath a moonless sky motifs in the 2004 movie; ALW just had them lying around and didn't have anything to do with them.) now comes along 2006 and they start to work on it again. SEVERAL changes are made from forsyth's book but the most important ones here are what they did to raoul. to save time here's a quick list and if you read the book (it's on amazon) you'll see what i mean:
he no longer knows and accepts from the beginning that gustave (pierre in POM) is not his son
he's now an alcoholic and gambler and broke
he is no longer there on the scene when christine dies
most of all: he's no longer the better option for christine
ALW and his team wanted so badly for erik and christine to be the favoured pairing that they NUKED raoul's character for the sequel. to make the sudden character shift from "loving childhood sweetheart who's just a little dumb" to "borderline abusive husband and neglectful father" believable in the sequel, they had to tweak how he acted in the original. in 2010-2011 (when LND was in the final stages before being premiered) actors playing raoul were told to change how they presented the character. start looking annoyed, be snappier, be less caring, etc.
the most obvious example of this is hadley fraser in the 25th anniversary performance. he looks grumpy, he rolls his eyes at christine when she's in distress.
here is a compilation of some comparisons between steve barton, hadley fraser and post-covid raoul actors (who i will address the importance of in a moment) in the rooftop and masquerade scenes:
i think these two moments really display raoul's character, both in the good eras and the bad. on the rooftop hadley looks annoyed. he's physically rough with christine and then dismissive when she tries to explain. the others (ESPECIALLY steve) are just concerned and continuously (try to) comfort her. in masquerade it's the same thing; hadley is upset and argumentative when the others are worried and even try to lift christine's spirits by showing her how happy they are about the engagement.
and finally here is a post on ig from former firmin actor matt harrop where, in the caption, he talks a bit about the resurrection of raoul as he leaves phantom:
tl;dr: 2010-2019 was a dark era for raoul as a character because of his presence in the sequel. god bless our lord and saviour steve barton and the raouls of the 2020s.
goodnight raoul nation 🫡
